#motyc

[frentique]

[puroresu-musings]

NOAH "THE NEW YEAR" 2024 Review (Jan 2nd, 2024, Ariake Arena, Tokyo)

1, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title 3-Way Elimination Match - Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane (c) vs. Alejandro & Ninja Mack vs. YO-HEY & Tadasuke ***3/4

2, Jake Lee, Jack Morris & Anthony Greene vs. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Titus Alexander & Vinnie Massaro **1/2

3, Masa Kitamiya vs. Tomohiro Ishii ****1/2+

4, Go Shiozaki vs. Satoshi Kojima ****

5, Great Sakuya & Nagisa Nozaki vs. Haruka Umesaki & Miyuki Takase **1/2

6, Takashi Sugiura vs. Ulka Sasaki ***

7, Hiroshi Tanahashi & HAYATA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinari Ogawa ***1/2

8, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship - Daga (c) vs. Eita ***

9, NOAH/NJPW vs. House of Torture 12 Man Elimination Match - Kaito Kiyomiya, Shota Umino, Daiki Inaba, Shuji Kondo, Ryohei Oiwa & Junta Miyawaki vs. EVIL, Ren Narita, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo ***3/4

10, GHC Heavyweight Championship - Kenoh (c) vs. Manabu Soya ****1/2

11, Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kota Ibushi *

This was my first full NOAH show I've watched in forever and it was a great watch. They pulled in a great crowd of over 5K, it had very good matches up and down the card, two fantastic bouts, but unfortunately it ended with one of the worst matches you're likely to see all year...

Things started hot with the Jr. Tag Title 3-Way. You know what to expect here; lots of crazy spots, not much in the way of traditional "psychology", and 100mph action. The crowd loved this and it was a great way to kick things off. There was confusion over the elimination nature of this one, and had it ended after after the first fall, I think I'd have liked it more, but it was a great little opener with the GLG duo of YO-HEY and Tadasuke eliminating both opponents at 8:48 and 12:24 respectively to win the straps. Things cooled down a tad with the next match, which was decent enough but just your standard 6-Man, which saw the GLG were victorious again.

The next match was something of a Dream Match for me, one that's been teased for a good couple of years now as Ishii and Kitomiya, two of my favourite guys from their respective companies, had an absolute war that is a strong MOTYC only two days in! You know what to expect here, it was tsandard Ishii big match fair, which is always tremendous. They pounded each other with chops, Lariats, headbutts, forearms punches and suplexes for 15:04, before Ishii got the win with the Vertical Drop Brainbuster. Amazing. The next match too was excellent as Go Shiozaki went over ageless veteran Satoshi Kojima, in a battle of the Go-wan Lariats! This was great, and kept relatively short at 13:56. Shiozaki won after an exchange of Lariats. Go formed a new faction called Team NOAH in the post-match.

Next up we got a couple of interesting debuts. "The Great Muta's daughter" Great Sakuya (Riko Kawahata) debuted in a doubles clash which ended in a DQ after she blew the dreaded Dokukiri in poor Umesaki's face. This was very silly, and the crowd were dead for it, but whilst it certainly wasn't great, it certainly wasn't bad either. The next match was better as former MMA fighter Ulka Sasaki battled NOAH legend Takashi Sugiura in a nice little exhibition. Sasaki looked good here, and it featured some good sequences, before Sugiura naturally won at the 11 minute mark with the Olympic Yossen Slam.

After intermission we got the ZSJ/Ogawa vs. Tana/HAYATA tag match. This was really good, as you'd expect, though at nearly 18 minutes it was a little long. They teased a lot of stuff with Zack and Tanahashi for their TV Title match at the Dome tomorrow. Sabre Jr. won for his team when he submitted HAYATA with a crazy leg stretch. The GHC Jr. Title bout was decent enough, as Daga retained over Eita in exactly 13 minutes. I expected a bit more here, and it ultimatly came off as a bit of a squash as Daga dominated the whole thing, despite the crowd really wanting Eita to win. The 6 on 6 Elimationation match was actually a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. Like everyone else, I'm at the end of my tether with this HoT stuff (and don't even get me started on Narita's inexplicably asinine inclusion in this nonsense), BUT, this match proves if done right, it can be pretty great. Obviously we got all the token House silliness like the never-ending stream of low blows, interference and incompetent refereeing, but it built really well as it boiled down to Kaito and EVIL, with Kiyomiya looking like a hero as he overcame the odds and sent EVIL to the floor with a Shining Wizard at the 26:14 mark to win for the babyfaces.

The first half of the Double Main Event; Kenoh's GHC Heavyweight Title defence against former tag partner Manabu Soya came next and it was another fantastic, hard-hitting war, and another early MOTYC. We all know Kenoh's great, and I've always been a fan of Soya since his All Japan days, but he's kind of lingered in the NOAH mid-card since arriving and gotten lost in the shuffle somewhat. Well this was a coming out party if ever there were one, both guys looked fantastic here, and I was worried someone was going to get legit KO'd at points, given how hard they were hitting each other. Kenoh missed a Moonsault knee drop by a considerable margin at the end there, but recovered well by devastating the big man with some headkicks and got the submission win at 28:36 with the Kenoh Special. Excellent, excellent match. Shiozaki came out in the post match and challenged Strong Fist to a title match, which will be happening on January 13th. Count me in as these two always have great matches together. And this is where I'd recommend everyone just turn this show off...

The Marufuji/Ibushi main event *sigh*... look I'm sure everyone already knows about this match, something that once upon a time was a dream match, but in the harsh realities of 2024, was an abject nightmare. This match was all kinds of bad, as Ibushi came into this thing banged up to oblivion and physically incapable of doing... anything, really. AND IT WENT 33:26!!! Which honestly felt like a good couple of hours watching live. Ibushi announced he was working through a broken hand and foot in the days prior, and when he made his entrance with tears streaming down his face, I feared the worst. The reality is this match shouldn't have happened, or if it did, have it go like 10 minutes maximum or something. And certainly don't have it be the main event! It was total insanity to book this to go north of 30 minutes. But even then, nobody made Ibushi try to do his signature spots in this thing. The guy couldn't even get himself up to go over the ropes on a backdrop, so what made him think attempting a Moonsault to the floor was a wise move? Well, he seemingly broke his ankle doing so, and the match only descended into more of a train wreck from there. The crowd were dead, almost like they were at a funeral, the "action" was a level lower than snail pace, and watching it was a profoundly sad experience. I never thought I'd see the day when the Keiji Muto of 2023 looked more mobile and having more business being in the ring than Kota Ibushi ever. Ibushi won with Kamigoye to put everyone out of their misery, none more so than the two guys in the match, then there was a totally bizarre post match where Kiyomiya and Jake Lee came out and seemingly banished Ibushi from NOAH. Ibushi could barely stand or walk on his way to the back, and this is a match I'll never watch again in my life. I had thought about giving this a DUD, but I couldn't be that harsh given the circumstances. Also, Marufuji did try his best out there, bless him. But the fact is Ibushi needs some time away from the ring to heal. I mean, this could be the end of his illustrious in-ring career, which is beyond heartbreaking, and he's looked a shadow of his former self since he returned to wrestling last Spring, but he wasn't even the same person out there on this show.

All in all, this was a great supershow from NOAH, marred slightly by a catastrophically bad main event, for obvious reasons. But I recommend everyone check it out up the fab Kenoh/Soya match, and just pretend the Ibushi/Maru match never happened.

NDT

[taigastyle]

so glad Phil Brooks died so Hangman is allowed to wrestle and have absolutely MOTYCs again.

[romiswired]

Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay (AEW Dynasty 2024)

Bryan Danielson = GOAT

Es increible pensar en el año de Bryan Danielson como para que una lucha con Will Ospreay sea la menos increible de todas las que viene teniendo. Tal calidad de luchador no se encuentra del todo, y desde hace tiempo la verdad indiscutible acerca de Danielson es que el es el mejor luchador de la historia. Su ultima run en AEW esta siendo historica en todos los sentidos, y me atreveria a decir que mas grande que su run en WWE por lo que significa para el como luchador. Es la "swan song" del mejor luchador que vio nacer este deporte y que dia a dia se supera aun mas.

No voy a mentirles, cuando vi que habian anunciado esta lucha tuve un poco de hype por ella. Habia algo tan atrapante alrededor de esta premisa con un luchador que me hace desconectar de lo verosimil del pro wrestling como Ospreay, y un luchador que me hace creer en dicho verosimil como Danielson. Ese choque de personalidades parecia plantear un desafio que yo iba a enfrentar con Bryan, y es el hecho de que quizas estaba sobre la mesa la posibilidad de que tenga una mala lucha. Y si yo te digo que su mala lucha puede suceder con Ospreay vas a reaccionar de una manera especifica porque el consenso general dicta que Ospreay es el mejor luchador del mundo.

Yo sinceramente no lo veo.

No veo que Ospreay pueda ser el GOAT, ni mucho menos. Esto no es solo porque lo dice e implica sin tener en cuenta sus falencias mas graves que no ha sabido desarrollar ni cambiar durante estos ultimos 8 años donde lo conozco, si no por una razon mas sencilla: Ospreay se esta enfrentando al GOAT, y el desafio del GOAT es sacarle una buena lucha que escape de la percepcion que se tiene de "buena lucha" en la modernidad. Danielson en si es un luchador conocido por forzar un ritmo y una cadencia clara en un combate, donde la mayoria de luchas que tiene son clasicos instantaneos porque el mismo Danielson es el director de orquesta, por no decir de manera coloquial que carrea a sus rivales a la mejor lucha de sus vidas.

Esta lucha la veia sin mucho hype a diferencia de otras personas porque aun si el desafio de Danielson era enorme, la expectativa que se habia generado y el "buzz" que habia alrededor de este combate era aquel que habia en los Omega vs Okada despues de Wrestle Kingdom 11: O sea, un combate auto percibido como apoteosico del cual se esperaba un nivel exacto de calidad teniendo en cuenta los luchadores que estaban involucrados. Y justo como los Omega vs Okada despues de Wrestle Kingdom, esta lucha cayo en ese agujero donde si o si tiene que ser un MOTYC y no lo es porque tiene errores colosales. En si, este combate se caracteriza por la performance de Danielson que enaltece su lugar como el mejor de la historia, y la performance usualmente repetitiva y cansina de Ospreay la cual he criticado anteriormente y de la que sigo pensando lo mismo: Y en si, este combate es eso pero expuesto en frente de tus ojos. Danielson busca rellenar los agujeros que deja Ospreay a lo largo de este combate, porque por cada no sell que hace disfrazado de Fighting Spirit, Danielson se encarga de deletrearle la palabra urgencia.

Creo que esta lucha evidencia claramente que Ospreay es el hombre adecuado en el momento adecuado, porque en una industria que lentamente fue cambiando la manera de verse a si misma (transformandose en una epica con carencia de sentido en muchas ocasiones) Ospreay es el luchador perfecto para cargar con ese ethos y con la bandera de ese estilo. Lo siento, pero yo no puedo tomarme enserio un tipo que despues de un combate de 35 minutos donde le trabajan su brazo y literalmente lo fuerzan a vender a punta de patadas termina su combate levantando a su oponente y dandole un codazo como si nada en una secuencia con mucha epica pero poco si no nulo sentido. Lo entiendo, es el estilo que maneja Ospreay, pero se olvida de lo fundamental de la lucha libre que es el selling y el hecho de que cada movimiento tiene una consecuencia.

No soy capaz de procesar que Ospreay siga teniendo los mismos errores de hace 8 años, incluso cuando el mismo nos hace creer que su estilo cambio y que esta evolucionando. Es el mismo que era cuando Junior, con la diferencia de que este Ospreay encontro una formula para el exito que se basa en explotar todos los recursos por los que lo odie con toda mi alma en el año 2021 y 2022. O sea, los años donde empezo a surgir este mito de Ospreay como el mejor luchador del mundo y donde empece a darme cuenta que mis gustos para la lucha libre se diferenciaban de todo lo que la gente empezaba a ver con mas frecuencia. Y miren que me encantaria que Will pueda arreglar todo lo que describo en esta reseña porque realmente considero que puede ser un luchador increible una vez que pueda rellenar esos espacios. El en parte carga la bandera de este estilo que mencione, cuya caracteristica principal yace en la peculiaridad de que puede hacer todo. Pero asi como es una peculiaridad, peca de ser una maldicion.

Porque al hacer todo, el valor de ese todo es inherentemente nada.

Si Ospreay tuviera esta lucha con un luchador que no le pone un freno a todo lo que quiere hacer, el ritmo de este combate se iria a la basura y seria un copia y pega de Ospreay vs Oku 3. Por eso es que para mi el que mas destaca de este combate es Danielson, porque esta consciente del daño que le haria a este combate el hecho de seguir el ritmo de un tipo que no sabe lo que es la palabra ritmo sin terminar siendo una masa de sonidos sin sentido y tecnicismos aburridos que no mejoran la experiencia si no que la empeoran, porque cae en pequeñas fatalidades como confundir el no sell con el Fighting Spirit (algo que se le reclamaba a gente como Lio Rush).

En si, Ospreay es como Eminem.

Eminem era genial como Slim Shady, pero luego saco Rap God y la gente decia que era el mejor liricista, lo que transformo todas sus canciones en Em buscando maneras hilarantes y sin sentido de hacer rimas, donde la mayoria de ellas no rimaban. Ospreay es un luchador que como Junior era increible, pero cuando paso a ser Heavyweight, parece que se cego por la percepcion general del fanatico de wrestling de lo que supuestamente era una buena lucha, e hizo que su identidad sea darte las mejores luchas siempre y en todos lados, incluso cuando no es necesario hacerlo.

Tal insistencia hace que las luchas de Ospreay (no todas) sean insufribles, porque parece que lo tenes al lado tuyo diciendote que sus luchas te tienen que gustar por los spots que hace, y por repetir la misma secuencia de movimientos sin urgencia ni malicia desde hace 5 años, cuando los hizo contra Shingo en el BOSJ y como quedaron bonitos los hizo en cada una de sus luchas. Creo que por esas cosas no me gusta Ospreay, y no me gustan sus luchas. No es porque simplemente lo odio, si no que odio el hecho de que tiene tanto potencial y lo desperdicia volviendose una parodia de si mismo en vez de tener una evolucion con la cual yo pueda decir: "Si, este tipo es el mejor luchador del mundo." Y mas ahora que esta entrando en esta etapa donde tiene todo para ser el Ace de AEW. No quiero insultar a un Ace porque lucha mal, me sentiria sucia.

Pero en fin, la lucha es buena pero puede ser mejor, y no lo es por los errores de Ospreay que lastimosamente no se pueden tapar.

Me encanta que Danielson obliga a Ospreay a que un movimiento suyo tenga malicia detras, al ser el Tiger Driver 91 el movimiento que termina la lucha independientemente del Hidden Blade posterior. Ahora Ospreay retiro el movimiento por lesionar a Danielson en kayfabe y tiene una historia que seguir con un movimiento que habia prostituido recientemente y que ahora, de repente, tiene mas valor que cualquier cosa que haga en su carrera. Asi que ahora tambien puedo decir que el Tiger Driver 91 de Forbidden Door me parece la cosa mas estupida e innecesaria que vi en mi vida viendolo en retrospectiva. Kenneth deberia ser un poco mas egoista, porque ese momento comprometio la lucha entera y la hizo peor que la de Wrestle Kingdom, pero bueno, de eso hablare otro dia.

Espero de todo corazon que Ospreay no haga ese movimiento de nuevo hasta una lucha realmente importante, porque eso seria desperdiciar algo tan sencillo como la bendicion del luchador mas grande de todos los tiempos. Usalo en algo como All In, no menos.

[beerpresure]

she's so hot and having a motyc

[urakenbomb]

Wanted to plug my wrestling spreadsheet for all the matches I’ve watched (and yet to watch) this year. It’s my first time running a spreadsheet and it’s been fun so far! Contains match ratings, my list of MOTYCs, and ranked men and womens WOTY.

[otasunestanblog]

Holy shit that Desperado-Eagles match is an MOTYC for me, that was fantastic!

[ghostly-fulcrum]

Tomorrow if i see ANY stinky takes after that classic main event that bring up the ratings if its low for it or w/e u racist, sorry im Mexican AN make the rules Vikingo & Kenny just did a MOTYC ☺️

[labontas]

[gabree-undead]

Guarda "MCW Full Match - Adam Brooks (Champion) vs. Robbie Eagles" su YouTube

These two guys offered a little pearl! Both Robbie and Adam wanted to prove that they were Australia's best pro wrestler and gave vent to their arsenal. Really a beautiful match, a must for 2021 that showed great things in the land of the Boomers

****1/2

[puroresu-musings]

Well, here we are in the final swing of a very “eventful” year, and just in the last week, we’ve had two outstanding matches in the world of puroresu that were amongst the best of 2020; the Go Shiozaki vs. Takashi Sugiura NOAH bout for the GHC Heavyweight Championship on December 6th, and today’s BOSJ 27 Final between Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado, were both easily ***** classics. Everyone check them out, I recommend both highly indeed.

NDT

[frentique]

[deathtriangles]

Rosa vs Britt booking bummed me out and I need a positive take on it. HELP!

here’s the thing: I actually think it was a good decision to delay the rosa win. looking at it, it will be far better to give her a win in aew’s first women’s cage match in her hometown instead of to an exhausted crowd after a motyc contender in punk vs mjf. while I think the match is unnecessary (since she could just claim rematch from the interference), I also like that they’re pushing the rankings by having her face #1 leyla hirsch before getting her rematch. anyone who says leyla will be buried in this is wrong: she will look good in the loss, she’ll probably try and use the turnbuckle rod again to continue that thing she’s started and she might even move on to a tbs program or something after. hell, I have her as rosa’s first challenger and this would be quite a nice thing to do to start that off early. plus, leyla deserves the opportunity! she’s been killing it lately.

one thing I will say though is that the booking isn’t entirely to blame for this current rosa vs baker run being a bit of a dud compared to what it could be. the in-ring performances, for some reason, haven’t been there. i personally think rosa and baker don’t have great ‘wrestling’ chemistry, but they have incredible chemistry in plunder matches, so having a hardcore stipulation match is the best decision to give the best match possible for rosa’s win. but being honest, the revolution match, the dynamite tag match and the no dq match between rosa and mercedes (as much as they tried to save it credit to them) were sloppy and not well worked at all by all performers. it also doesn’t help that at the same time, serena deeb is having a really great squash run and jade is improving leaps and bounds and putting together some really quite good matches. i personally left revolution more invested in statlander and leyla because apart from a couple of minor botches, their match was really well worked and had some quite creative spots in. but the stipulation rosa vs baker match will be great and it’s not like we’re waiting months for her to win the belt. it’s literally a week tomorrow!

[yungcrybby-anonymousbosch666]

Now for the first time in its nearly 50 year history some members of the voting committee decided to vote a women’s match as a MOTYC, Stardom’s house style has been purposely changed to emulate more the “epic matches” that have been a staple of NJPW main events and the last year of NOAH especially. Over the last two years, talk about Stardom has increased with popular wrestling critics and wrestlers, and it has quickly become seen as one of the top promotions in the world. But did Stardom suddenly become a top-tier promotion, or did Bushiroad create a Pick Me Girl that has successfully pandered to groups of adult men that think so highly of this singular “epic match” style that it’s the only way they view wrestling as being great?

This entry also touches on how being a female athlete is qualified by how unattractive or attractive you are. Stardom has recognition because it toes the line of acceptable female behavior. Not being as threatening as the men, not stepping out of line with gendered expectations of women.

[gdwessel]

NJPW Strong Episode 62 - 10/16/2021; Danielson Defeats Suzuki in MOTYC; Suzuki v. Dickinson Booked For Bloodsport 7 on Friday

Last night was the next episode of NJPW Strong to come from the Autumn Attack tapings in September down in Texas. This episode was not unopposed, as AEW ran a (pretty lackluster, honestly) special Saturday episode of Dynamite. 

Alex Coughlin Challenge Series: Chris Dickinson [ROH] d. Alex Coughlin (Cross Armbreaker, 13:03)

Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] d. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy] (Romero > Nelson, Backslide, 13:41)

Juice Robinson, Lio Rush [AEW], TJP [FREE] & Clark Connors d. Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo & Chris Bey [Bullet Club] (Robinson > Hikuleo, DQ, 11:07)

Will Ospreay [United Empire] d. Karl Fredericks (Hidden Blade, 18:08)

Ospreay defeats Fredericks, and then welcomed TJP into the ranks of the United Empire by helping with the beatdown. Two scumbags can be in the same unit; poor O-Khan. I think this would have worked better had TJP’s match from that night not had been the previous one, which ended when Hikuleo used a bullrope on Juice in lead-in to their Bullrope Match. Think there may have been some poor choice in match placement in the editing room here. There also seems to be some confusion as to who actually won Dickinson v. Coughlin. NJPW’s English site says Coughlin, others including Cagematch and F4W say Dickinson. 

Next week’s episode continues the Autumn Attack cycle. The Showdown shows should be wrapping up right about now if they haven’t already. Again, I’m not going to spoil anything so I have something to discuss when the episodes air on NJPWWorld.

Minoru Suzuki was at the Showdown Strong tapings in Philly yesterday and today, but on Friday, he was in Miami for the AEW Rampage Buy-In where he and Bryan Danielson wrestled what was, frankly, a MOTYC and one of the best matches I’ve seen in North America ever. It was magnificent, and you need to see it now on AEW’s YouTube channel. Danielson did win the strike and submission heavy match with a Busaiku Knee, almost going the full 30-minute time limit, and believe me, they could have gone longer and I would have been Just Peachy. Seriously, watch it now. This may be my #1 match for Suzuki’s US tour now, displacing Suzuki v. Homicide in GCW on 9/24/2021, but then, I’ve still not seen all of the matches yet.

On that note, on Friday, Suzuki will be in LA for GCW Bloodsport 7. His match has now been announced, and as expected, it’s against Chris Dickinson. The two had some words last weekend in GCW, as well as a match yesterday in Philly as part of the tapings. This match should have happened in 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic. Now if we could only get Suzuki v. Orange Cassidy back eh?

[lostinyourears]

Arena Puebla Report! 04/15/2019

Oro Jr., Rey Samuray & Asturiano vs. Tyson La Bestia, El Malayo & Toto Bill Jr.

Who’s who?

Oro in gold/black, Rey in black/white with a hair braid and Asturiano in silver.

Tyson in half skull mask, Malayo in lime green top & Toto in  black/red.

How’s the match?

Good, nothing too shocking here, but a few of the guys get good moments. Samuray did a springboard 450 and Tyson La Bestia looked like... well a beast at the finish. Tyson had a moment or two of awkwardness in the match, but it’s lessened by the impression he left at the finish. Not must see by any means though, but Tyson seems to be getting a shine to be the brute in these opening Puebla matches... which is a start, but pretty low on the CMLL pecking order.

Princesa Sugehit, Marcela & Lluvia vs. La Seductora, Comandante & Metalica

Who’s who?

Sugehit in blue, Marcela in gold,black & Lluvia in a black bodynet.

Seductora in green, Comandante in black civvies and Metalica in red. 

How’s the match?

Meh, I’m not going to pull any punches here or with the next match. This mostly sucked and was in great part due to Seductora/Comandante being on the ruda team. As over exposed as Dalys/Tiffany/Ampola often times feel overexposed, I’ll always prefer them over Seductora/Comandante, who to me are the 2 worst luchadoras on the roster. Still Metalica and Marcela teased something post match here, perhaps CMLL will follow WWE’s footsteps and have Marcela/Metalica be a double champion for a short amount of time. Doesn’t save the match, but it does mean that it might actually have a meaning of some sort. 

Stigma, Magnus & King Jaguar vs. Virus, Perverso & Policeman

Who’s who?

Stigma in black/red, Magnus in gold and Jaguar in red maskless.

Virus with face paint, Perverso and & Policeman in a black faux police outfit.

How’s the match?

Meh, as said I won’t pull my punches and this was poor. Even worse now that we know this is the catalyst for a hair match next week between King and Policeman. Why... cause a nutshot? If that was all it took to get a hair match... Rush would have 1000 scalps by now. Wish there was better and more action here, as is it seems like a pisspoor catalyst for a lucha de apuestas, but then again it it two low card guys... so not too surprising. 

Caristico, Mistico & Soberano Jr. vs. NGD(Sanson, Cuatrero & Forastero)

Who’s who?

Caristico in white/red/gold, Mistico in all white, Soberano in Blue.

NGD using boots : Sanson in white, Cuatrero in black, Forastero in gold. 

How’s the match?

Good, but a little underwhelming after the MOTYC that NGD had vs. Soberano/Angel de Oro/Niebla Roja last Tuesday. This wasn’t a bad performance by anyone, it just didn’t feel like we saw anything new here and nothing was on the line. So it feels like it’s pretty hard to care. Should have included more talents from this coming Friday’s Block B. Cuatrero/Mistico being the only two that are in that block and this match. 

Ultimo Guerrero(c) vs. Valiente for the CMLL World Heavyweight Title

Who’s who?

Ultimo maskless and Valiente in red masked.

How’s the match?

Very good, best match of the night by a decent margin... of course though it could be hit with my complaint about the semi-main. Neither guy showed much new and there weren’t as many surprises as you’d like for a title match. Still Valiente and Ultimo Guerrero did what the crowd would want and expect from them and made this show something worth having bought a ticket to or watched on Youtube. Skip all of this show except the main and semi-main. I’m rarely this cool on a show, but it just didn’t really have enough above par action to praise. 

Highlights :